Time Imperfect
by Coley Merrin
Summary: ConYuu: What if the one you loved would die tomorrow because of a mistake you made 10 years before? What if you could go back to correct it: going back with no guarantee that you could return to your rightful time... or to the one you loved?
1. The Goblet, Part One

**Time Imperfect**

Author: Coley Merrin

Pairing: Conrad/Yuuri

Genre: Romance, Drama

To: Heather, for whose "That's interesting" to my desperate groaning about the bunny spawned the whole thing. And everything that came after.

* * *

**Chapter One** – The Goblet – Part One

Time goes, you say? Ah no!  
Alas, Time stays, _we_ go.  
Henry Austin Dobson

* * *

Conrad's eyes found Yuuri at the edge of the hall, in the middle of the action as usual, with a box half the size that he was in his arms and gesturing with his head where to put another. Birthday plans had consumed Yuuri's free moments for the last week, and, with the day looming, Gunter could not keep him away if he had wanted. It was the ten year anniversary of Yuuri's choice to live as a Mazoku, and so this birthday was even more special. The birthday banquet had become a yearly event, and Yuuri had taken a personal interest in seeing it carried out. Perhaps that has been brought on by a little bit of guilt, Conrad thought, as Yuuri acknowledged some "fault" in that people were working hard because of his birthday. Yuuri spotted himbefore Conrad could wave, and did an exaggerated bounce that had Conrad holding his breath briefly for Yuuri's sense of balance. The box must be a light one.

"Hard to believe it's been almost ten years to the day since our Maou chose to live as a Mazoku," Yozak commented from his left, the smile apparent in his voice.

"Time moves quickly," Conrad agreed.

"He get around to, oh… slapping your cheek yet?"

"Every night," Conrad replied in the same spirit.

Yozak threw his head back and laughed, its soundechoing down to the scurrying people below.

"Might be a good birthday gift."

"I've already got one, thanks. Besides, we were thinking of waiting till a good memorable age. Like 50."

Yozak stared, unamused. "You might be able to pull that one over on Gunter, but not me."

Yuuri reappeared, this time without boxes in hand, and looked up at them again. Conrad gestured away from the hall and Yuuri nodded, smiling.

"Don't take him away too long."

"Not before his big day," Conrad assured.

* * *

"It feels good to get away!" Yuuri luxuriated, stretching his arms high above his head in the privacy of their room.

"You're not working yourself too hard?"

"Hard! They take everything heavy away before I can look at it. Besides, I'm turning 26, not 500!"

Conrad laughed at his indignant answer, knowing that Yuuri could not be better cared for. He was sure somehow Yuuri knew that Conrad called him away to allow him a break… But it also did Conrad good, and it seemed wrong to call it an indulgence, to spend a few moments in Yuuri's presence away from the eyes of the castle.

"No one wants to see you celebrate such an occasion while bedridden from a back sprain."

"I'm pretty sure I got one of those from signing my name to all those papers once…"

Yuuri wandered to the low, wide chest of drawers. The surface of it was covered with little things, shells Yuuri had found, or shiny rocks. Trinkets he had been given, and birthday gifts small enough to fit. Yuuri picked up an old goblet up off of the chest. With a fluted edge, it showed its age, but the dark finish of it still held luster, and there was etching that swirled around the edges and down the sides.

"Do you remember when you gave this to me? A few days before my birthday…"

"I remember you thinking there would be something more amazing than a goblet inside that box."

"But it was a gift from Conrad," Yuuri said, just a little bit coy. "I think I wanted to use it at dinner for a week."

"And finally let it be put on a shelf when you were ill for the week after that."

Yuuri smoothed the frown off of Conrad's face with a finger.

"It wasn't exactly your fault. Besides, you sat beside the bed and read books to me. That must have been excruciatingly boring for you."

"There was very little I wouldn't do."

"Was?"

"And still."

"So we'll have ages of birthdays together after this."

Conrad smiled at the request, and kissed him gently before he passed. "There is nothing I'd like better."

* * *

In sleep, for Conrad, came dreams. It was their bedroom, with its wide canopied bed, his sword on the side table, and Yuuri's cape hung carefully over a rung on the wall. He felt weightless, as though he were there without actually standing.. Yuuri was there, standing much as he had earlier in front of the wide chest. He held his birthday goblet in his hands, smiling. One slim finger traced the etching on the side.

"In 16 hours the Maou will be dead," a sinuous voice spoke in Conrad's dream, deep and masculine. "Do you wish for this?"

"Yuuri!"

It felt as though he shouted it in his surprise, but Yuuri did not respond. He bit the inside of his cheek, felt the sting. He felt the room spin, but hedid not move. Could not move, he realized, except to watch Yuuri. He had never had prophetic dreams… but he had learned never to cast aside anything without examination.

"Dead? How? Is someone going to attack?" Conrad demanded of the voice.

"What would you rather?" came the sing-song reply. "Assassins, curses, spirits, ancient writings… Or some of each? There are things in this world that have secrets… And once invoked, lead to the spilling of blood. Things created for sorrow, but given in joy? This man, Yuuri Shibuya of Earth, half blood, Maou… He will die tomorrow, and it will be you, Sir Weller, who will have dealt the blow."

"I would not!"

"Would not? You have. There he stands with a gift in his hands… A goblet to mark one birthday of many in an expected long life. Except that once he drank the waters of the cup, it tainted him. It was written there, the urging, for all to see who could read the old writings. But no matter, it promises ten years to the day, after many happy days, given with love, life is taken away… and after all that possibility to take life, it is given to a person of power! No, nothing can turn his fate, Sir Weller. Not this fate that you have set upon him, with a gift. After only a handful of your years, and you have robbed him of all his."

There must be something that can be done, Conrad thought, his hands stealing up to grip his hair. _Or am I dreaming? I must be dreaming._ Such things existed, cursed items, death curses, but it was a cup!

"Be thankful for dreams," interrupted the voice. "Not every curse bears warning. If you wish to stay by the side of your young king… You must be willing to take your leave."

"If this is not a dream, and that piece of pottery is truly cursed and will take his life, what proof do I have of this? Who are you, and why are you telling me this?"

"Who are you to question a gift? The vision you see before you now will take place tomorrow, as surely as you lay in a bed this night. The curse will be dark like smoke, and it will chase the life from him. I can show you. I can show you what he looks like as death takes him, as he gasps and dies. You can refuse me. You can stay by his side, and you can see the years fade to nothing.

"But if what I say is true, and you pass this chance, and you hold him, and you mourn over his lifeless body, know that the chance was passed, and your hope of living with yourself as well."

"Then where do I need to go?" Conrad tried to turn as the voice moved around him, but returned to face the image of Yuuri holding the goblet.

"You must go to a place and time where there is no return that can be assured. You must undo your gift, Sir Weller. Take back the goblet. Let him speak to you the words of return, and with the goblet in your hands, you must crack it… but not break it! And risking life and your very place beside him, you may be granted defeat victoryover the curse. Know that the goblet itself is your avenue of return. The chance of folly waits should luck fail you. Would you take this risk?"

"And if I don't, he will die." Yuuri, Conrad thought. He had said if there was no choice he wouldn't leave… But where could he go, where there was no return? Even to Earth…

"There is always a choice." The voice was wry, as though it had known his answer. "Say goodbye to your king, Sir Weller, one more time."

No longer he stood, but lay facing Yuuri on their bed as he had before dreaming, watching the rise and fall of Yuuri's chest as he slept sprawled on his back. An angry ball of sickness churned in his stomach.

"Yuuri…" he said, though it seemed a whisper. Conrad smoothed the collar of Yuuri's pajamas and hitched himself up so he could look down at the sleeping man.

"I have to go. I don't know where. I don't want to leave you. But there's a chance that you might die if I don't. Yuuri. You know that I love…"

The sickness became excruciating pain, and he was jerked from the comfort of Yuuri's presence into a half world where the pain eased, words of promise still waiting to be said, and pressed against cold glass that was surrounded by smoke that burned his eyes… He could see his reflection in the glass.

No… not a reflection. It moved, the image of himself, it moved as it stared at him curiously.

"Is Yuuri in danger?" the other Conrad asked, his voice muffled through the glass.

"There is a goblet," Conrad said, and heard the story from his dream come tumbling out. "And Yuuri's 26th birthday is in three days."

The other Conrad frowned. "Must he be told?"

He saw the image of Yuuri in their bed, smiling at him… "Yes. He needs to know. He may be able to help. I would tell him…"

The glass shuddered, and so did he. The cool surface drew away slowly as it revolved, and the Conrad that was behind it placed a hand to the glass, and it was matched as Conrad also raised his hand.

"Listen closely," said the other Conrad, his brow furrowed, a hint of fear showing through before the mist turned him to shadow. "My Yuuri is not yet sixteen."

* * *

Conrad woke, under the cover of his old bed, in a room he had not seen in years. He woke, disoriented, the dream fresh on his mind, every bizarre part of it. He woke reaching out for Yuuri. He woke alone. 


	2. The Goblet, Part Two

**Chapter 2** – The Goblet – Part Two

* * *

Conrad woke, under the cover of his old bed, in a room he had not seen in years. He woke, disoriented, the dream fresh on his mind, every bizarre part of it. He woke reaching out for Yuuri. He woke alone. 

Yozak found him before Conrad could properly put on his boots. The room arrangement, after nearly four years of sharing a different room with Yuuri, was like returning to a childhood place after being out and alone. It had a peculiar feeling to it, familiar, and yet one that was not exactly right. It was not home any longer. More like a dream. He had been comfortable here. He had worried for Yuuri, and dreamed here. He had been lying on that bed while love and fear had tangled inside, misery and happiness tumbled together like stones in the tide.

He stole a quick glance at the window seat as he stood, closing his eyes briefly at the remembering feeling of Yuuri's hands clasped behind his neck.

"You rang?" Yozak said pleasantly.

"Where is the Maou?"

The other man glanced at the window. "In his bed, as I believe he is at this time every morning."

Yozak kept close behind as Conrad strode through the hallways.

"Something the matter?"

"I hope not."

Though there were questions on the tip of his tongue. He could not ask Yozak how old Yuuri would be turning today. He did not sleep separate from Yuuri unless… They had not fought, and neither were due to leave. It would be Yuuri's birthday soon. He would be 26, and he would laugh at any number of ridiculous presents he received, and endure the slavish attention Gunter would provide, and he would smile at Conrad out of the corner of his eye…

His jaw clenched tighter as he pushed open the door to Yuuri's room, their room. He could have sighed in relief as he took in the figure on the bed in the rising morning light. He was alive. Tousled black hair, breath deep and even in sleep.

He had nearly called his name when he noticed the slimness of the shoulders, and the groan was silent as he watched Yuuri shift, and he saw the childishly round features of the boy, features that in his eyes had had ten years to refine.

The door closed easily, quickly, as if it being closed would mean what Conrad had seen on the other side was not true. He stared at the door handle, glared, but it was not the door that was at fault.

"This week is his 16th birthday," he said, his voice sounding hollow to his ears.

"You lose a week somewhere? They'll be running around like fools downstairs fixing food. Are you all right, Conrad?"

All right? It wasn't every day that Conrad was forced to steady himself against the stone door frame. And it definitely wasn't every day that he woke to find the dearest person to him, his lover and king, still almost yet a child. And there was a quiet irony of claiming the knowledge of how much he relied on Yuuri to quiet his mind when he found himself ten years behind him.

"Where are the gifts? Can you show me where the gifts are?"

Yozak did not question him, leading him down the stairs, though he stared with a furrowed brow that spoke volumes on how he would be watching Conrad closely. Before he could not ask questions of Yozak, and now there were things he could not tell him. He was from the future, and he was sleeping with, living with, the Maou, and had been since Yuuri's 22nd birthday (after Yuuri, in his frustration at Conrad moving their relationship at glacial speed, had shouted to a full dining room that Conrad was sleeping in his room that night and that was that. It had cued silence, and scattered whistles and cheers. Conrad had never seen Yuuri quite that shade of red before…). It seemed Yuuri's birthdays had a way of being events.

And oh yes, there was a cursed goblet, that Conrad had purchased with his own hand which would kill the Maou ten years in the future. It would be easier to cut off a leg than explain in full detail.

"The gift room," Yozak announced, allowing Conrad in ahead of him.

He had known there would be quite a few. People trying to gain favor, foreign kings showing tribute, those in the castle who were loyal and loved him… Heaped on tables in orderly stacks, there were more things than Yuuri could possibly use in the next year.

A cheerful-looking maid appeared around one stack with a list in hand.

"Can I help you, Sir Weller?"

What was her name? Heidel? She had not been employed at the castle for some years…

"Has a gift arrived… A box from the antiquities shop, Allay's, addressed to the Maou from me?"

"Not that I know of, Sir Weller. Let me check for you. Some gifts that arrived without wrapping have been moved, though." She shuffled pages. "Yes. It arrived yesterday. It would be in the wrapping room around the…"

Conrad pivoted without a word, following Yozak who had started moving at the look on Conrad's face.

If the gift room had been regimented, the wrapping room had had the benefit of a very strong wind. Colored paper from where Conrad knew not lay in stacks and piles, crumpled here and there. The maids here looked harried.

"A gift," Conrad barked before the nearest maid could speak. "My gift, to Yuuri. Is it here?"

"No, Sir!" piped up the maid at the table over. "The Maou was naughty… That is, Sir, he got around the guards, Sir, and came in to see what we were doing. He saw the gift from you, but it was wrapped! And he looked so hopeful… We thought it wouldn't hurt if he was able to open one gift before his birthday. Oh, I hope you're not angry!"

"When! When did he take it?!" He stepped forward, and she cowered back.

"Last night, Sir! Oh, I'm so sorry! We didn't know!"

This time he didn't have to wait for Yozak as he shoved blindly out the door and ran. He had not reached the stairs before he began to shout Yuuri's name. He was barely aware that Yozak was right behind him, or that they passed a startled Ken on their way.

"Yuuri!"

He fumbled the door knob, but gripped it, and the boy king looked over, as he lifted a dark, etched goblet to his lips.

"Yuuri, no!"

One arm pushed Yuuri's down as Conrad crashed into Yuuri, batting the cup away. He barely caught himself on his knees as he fell, keeping Yuuri from sprawling out entirely on the carpet-covered stone.

"Had you drank from it?" Conrad demanded, shaking Yuuri's shoulders.

"No." Yuuri was staring up at him with wide eyes. "I thought… I wanted to see what your gift was, and they said it was okay if they just took one. Conrad?"

His strength left him, and he sank fully down as he breathed. He had not been too late. And the goblet… it had fallen at the edge of the rich carpet, onto the stone. Heavy, solid, it had felt to Conrad's hands, and yet it had fallen… broken… and a shadow grew dark around it.

A strong breeze ruffled through the room, seeming to solidify as it swirled around Conrad and Yuuri. It came to rest over the goblet, boiling gray and black, and through it, a voice.

"Who denies me the blood of kings?"

"Yuuri, stay back." With sword in hand he stood, nearly lifting Yuuri to his feet to push him towards Yozak and Ken. "Yozak, stay in front of them."

This was the curse, Conrad could feel it. And it was angry at being unfulfilled. By addressing his gift to Yuuri… he had promised the curse a victim beyond all others.

"I almost tasted royal blood," the mist hissed at him.

"You've chosen the wrong king."

"But you gave him to me, Your Excellency…"

A cool tendril of mist stroked along Conrad's jaw.

With a yell that seemed to have no end, Conrad swung… and he watched his sword slice cleanly through empty air. The sword tip clanged in protest as it was forced down onto the stone, into the puddle left by the broken goblet. He sliced now, desperate, and was rewarded with a roar as his sword found purchase in the dark form… as the wetted sword found him purchase. But he realized it at nearly the same time as the dark spirit. It swirled to him, surrounded him as he spun sword-ready, knowing Yozak was more than a sword distance away. It swirled quicker, faster than he could move, faster than he could see, knocking him, cutting him, while Conrad wielded the wet sword and nearly chanted a prayer. Dry, the sword slid through the mist with no resistance, but wet, wet he thrust and it held. He felt the mist contract around the sword, a sort of gasp as it shrieked and howled its denial. Dark and viscous it fell, sliding over the floor, to the shards, where it faded.

"If I gave him to you, then he is mine to take back."

Conrad dropped to one knee, gasping for breath and looking for Yuuri. The boy was being restrained by Yozak's arm, but he looked fine. Fine, Conrad thought, swiping a hand across his neck where a cut beside his ear had bled. As fine as one could be when a curse, a spirit, whatever it had been, had attempted to kill him only days before his birthday.

He half crawled forward, seeing again the broken goblet. Crack it, the dream had said, fight what was inside it, but keep the goblet whole. He had fought, but… the pieces in his hands were nothing but little shards. The rest that littered the ground were smaller. He had saved Yuuri's life, and the goblet had smashed. If it had fallen on the carpet, would it have…?

"Yuuri, Yuuri, Yuuri."

Closing his eyes, he saw with clarity the first time that Yuuri told him he loved him. The little hitch in his voice, the softness in his eyes, the feel of the heart beating rapidly against his palm, where Yuuri held it with determined hands.

"I'm so sorry, Yuuri," he whispered.

"I'm all right, Conrad!"

Conrad jerked to attention, looking to see Yuuri crouching next to him. He squeezed his eyes shut, and in a moment of weakness, let his forehead rest on the young Yuuri's shoulder.

"What was that?"

"A curse," Ken said. "A dangerous one."

"We can sweep this up and get it out of here," Yozak said.

"No!" Conrad spoke so sharply he knew that he startled each of them. He stood. "I want every piece of this. To… study it. Yuuri might have gotten hurt because of this." Might have gotten killed.

"Will you give it back to me, Yuuri?"

Yuuri glanced at the shards. "Sure? I'm sorry we had to break the cup, Conrad," Yuuri said, still seeminglyoff balance from Conrad's outburst.

"What's more important is that you're okay, Heika. And it was my fault. I brought it to you."

My fault, he thought, as they packaged up the shards of the goblet. Seemingly broken beyond repair… The goblet had been the greatest danger to Yuuri's life.

But he remembered the words spoken to him in his dream. The goblet had also been his chance to return.

* * *

**PRESENT – Yuuri**

* * *

Yuuri woke slowly, swallowing convulsively when he found his mouth dry. Conrad's breathing was steady beside him, and he smiled…shifting slightly so he could look at him more easily. He touched the still cheek, kissing the brow that was furrowed in sleep. He knew Conrad would want to wake early and he stroked his face as he leaned to kiss him awake. 

Conrad's eyes opened before he could, and the other man half rolled, half leaped out from under the covers, not stopping until he was crouched several feet from the bed.

Yuuri sat quickly, his heart racing with concern at the unusual reaction. A nightmare?

Conrad stared at him, confusion and almost a lack of recognition on his face. "Yuuri?"

"Were you expecting someone else?"

Conrad touched his face where Yuuri's hand had been. "You… aren't sixteen."

Yuuri gave a half hysterical laugh. What was going on? "Not for ten years."

Conrad sat hard on the floor, staring around him as if he had never seen the room before.

"I didn't believe it was possible."

Surely no simply nightmare could explain this odd behavior. Was Conrad sick? Had he fallen?

"What was possible?" he demanded. "Conrad, what's happened?"

"Ten years ago you received a goblet for your sixteenth birthday. It was a gift… from… me. But the goblet was cursed. It would have killed you ten years to the day. But… somehow he found out, somehow…"

"Who?"

Conrad took a deep breath, and looked straight into Yuuri's eyes. "The Conrad from this time."

Yuuri blinked. "You're not…"

He spoke quickly, urgently. "In my time, you were turning sixteen. You were to decide to acknowledge your Mazoku blood… But instead I dreamed, and I woke here… with you. You've changed in ten years, Heika," Conrad said softly. "And apparently… so have I."

Yuuri was sure he must be gaping like a fish, but Conrad had looked him straight in the eye. He had not lied to him, not like that. Still he was half ready to call for a doctor. And yet, if it were true… This Conrad knew him as a gangly, unsure teenager, and… Yuuri nearly blushed. It was like confessing all over again.

Certainly their relationship had made a difference in their locations. Conrad's room had the qualifier "old" in front of it, and Yuuri's room stood open to both of them. Their daily duties were not so much changed. Their actions around each other had always been casual and polite as the situation called for. Conrad had never been overly forward and Yuuri was demonstrative when the situation begged for nothing less. But when the situation between them changed… or rather, when any such denial of the situation had ceased, no one paid much mind to Yuuri's hand straying over Conrad's if they sat next to each other, or to Conrad's fingers that occasionally trailed along the often-too-long hair at the young Maou's brow. There may have been a few more knowing smiles between them, but Yuuri preferred to think that those stayed between him and Conrad.

Yuuri flushed again when he recalled the look of shock as Conrad registered the looming face moving in for a kiss. He wouldn't have known who he was recoiling from. But it was much less embarrassing than if the knowledge of "their" relationship was a secret.

He could see differences now, unless delusion had gripped him, too. The way this Conrad looked at him was not the same familiar way that he had come to know, but slightly distanced… No less gentle or affectionate, but distanced. So the step back was small, but not insignificant.

Yuuri blinked. "But if Conrad's in the past… Is there any way for him to catch up?"

"No. I asked as many questions as I could while I was…while I was brought here. It's more like… an alternate reality now, this present time. And your past… His being there should not have happened, and he has altered its presence in time. Your future will not be known fully, not unless he is removed and I return."

"And the goblet…" Yuuri sprinted to the dresser where it had sat neatly for ten years.

The goblet, whole only the day before, had been neatly rendered in two. Inside were what looked like droplets of drying blood.

"He's managed to remove it from you in the past and break it some way," Conrad said from behind him. "That's good. Or else you would be dead now."

"So everything might change, even if Conrad saved my life and came back everything now could change." Yuuri reached to yank at his hair. No, he was awake. _Conrad, how could you leave me? Even to save me…_ He breathed, feeling tears burn. No, he would have time to fall apart later. "Is there any way to bring him back?"

"I know that we can try. We have the goblet after all. That's the link."

Conrad lifted a hand to lay on Yuuri's shoulder, and seemed startled at how high he had to go to do so from the way he stared.

"I'm sorry I'm not the Conrad you wanted, Yuuri."

Yuuri smiled, not feeling it reach his eyes. It was as if Conrad had, ten years out of his own time, sent a version of himself to help Yuuri along. It was not as though he could reassure this Conrad with "But someday you would be the Conrad I wanted." There was no guarantee, when messing with time itself, that either one would be the Conrad he needed after this.

* * *

TBC

* * *

**Authors notes:** It takes an impressive writer to be able to present time travel in any way that approaches making sense... I do not claim to be that writer. The first chapter was almost bound to cause confusion... Laziness on my part? It bounced out of my head in approximately the way it is. If any of this at all makes sense, it's due in no little part to Crystaltear, who prodded me down the straight and narrow. Any errors, though, are due to the author's stubbornness and artistic whim. With this chapter, I'm hoping some of that confusion is cleared up. Conrad's first day trapped in his past has begun, and through the last scene, we see that Yuuri's first day "without" Conrad has begun as well.

**A note on point of view:** It is the first time the POV changes - each chapter will be prefaced with this type of note (Past - Conrad, Present - Yuuri) from now on to let you know without a doubt whether we are in the Past with Conrad's pov, or in the Present with Yuuri's. Those are the only two there will be. I'm aiming to confuse no one, so if the instance to change POV arises again you may be sure that I will be waving a flag to let you know. I don't want to chase anyone away, after all!

But I thought I would take this opportunity to throw this out there as we start to ramp up... Thanks to all of you for reading!


	3. He is Conrad

** Chapter 3 ** – He is Conrad

* * *

PRESENT – Yuuri

* * *

They called Yozak and Ken to hear the story. Half so that Yuuri knew that he wasn't really slipping off the deep end, and half because he knew they needed help. Yozak had interrogated Conrad like an imposter. It had been Ken who had not questioned the story, but sat silently, studying Yuuri as they were shown the cracked goblet, and the etching on the side. 

"It sounds as though Conrad," Ken said after the story had trailed to a finish, "the Conrad from this time, is the one who bears the burden in this. The goblet in the past is no doubt the best chance at his return. We can research the etching… see what it reads. I imagine that will be Conrad's first move. From there… We'll have to see."

"At least we'll be doing something." Yuuri sighed. "Anything."

Yozak and Conrad added their agreement, having fallen back into the easy familiarity between them. Yuuri stood abruptly.

"Excuse me for a minute."

He passed almost blindly through the door, pressing his forehead against the nearest wall as he tried to steady the breathing that was coming quick and ragged.

"At least you have any Conrad at all," Ken said softly.

"How did he go back… back in _ time _ ?"

"We don't know."

"It's too much to take in. I don't know whether I'm supposed to miss him, or mourn him. Could the power of the Maou…?"

"Curses are strange things, and so is the breaking of them. It's for Conrad to rectify."

"But I'm part of it!"

"Which is why I think it's good that you'll be doing what you can here. You may be ten years away from him, Yuuri, but don't discount the connection between people… You to Conrad, and you to the Conrad who is in that room. If anything his tie is closer, because he too instigated the curse. Use that."

"But how do you mourn for something you haven't lost yet?"

Ken paused before he turned. "I wouldn't advise against preparing yourself for anything that might happen. Though, if you know anything it's that Conrad will not give up on you. So perhaps you shouldn't either…"

Conrad had used precious moments to let his past self know what was happening so that Yuuri would know. Conrad had been snatched from their bed in the middle of the night to fix something he had never meant to bring about.

The smile that touched his face felt better this time as he knew that Conrad was doing his best to return. He believed that with all his heart.

"Time to pull out the books!" he sang out as he returned. "Perhaps Gunter will be able to help us with the research. And Conrad, maybe you can tell us where you bought the goblet?"

He saw Conrad, the Conrad who looked at him with concern, who was like and unlike the one he called his, as if he were an identical twin. But there was love here, and there was affection. There was a bond that had been forged long before any words of romantic love had been spoken. There were lifetimes behind them.

As Conrad began to tell the story of how he found the goblet, he knew Ken was right. Having a Conrad near him did not lessen his wishing, but it was better than no Conrad at all.

And as he later watched Conrad in the courtyard, Yozak down beside him, he felt strangely troubled. Ken watched them all with a wary eye, but Yuuri wasn't concerned. He heard Yozak laugh, watched him clap Conrad on the shoulder.

"He is Conrad," he whispered, feeling something close to dismay and not understanding at all why.

* * *

They had taken copies of the etchings on the goblet's side and brought out the best of the researchers to tackle the old script. Gwendal, who seemed to know bits of everything, knew very little of the subject. It had gone out of style long before Gwendal's birth to teach noble children the old script. Most of the writings had long been translated or all old manuscripts destroyed. The invocation of a dead language such as that made the goblet's writing even more unusual. If words had power, then it must have harbored something very old. 

Yuuri laid his chin on his forearms and considered the two halves of the goblet that lay on the table in front of him. Aside from being broken, it looked no different than it had for the last 10 years. That, and the blood stain on the inside. It didn't seem particularly real that this small thing had come so close to killing him. It was almost like a joke… some story, except that Conrad leaving was no joke, and Conrad had surely not taken it as a joke. With the amount of duty and responsibility that Conrad felt toward him… This would almost be unbearable.

How hungry that goblet must have been, locked in the dark for so long. Had it felt Yuuri on Conrad's presence? It seemed like such an ordinary thing. It must have wanted to come to him very badly. He shuddered. Would it have been instant? Would he have suffered? Would they have even known that it had been a curse? Or would the goblet have been re-gifted to kill again? Would Conrad have found someone else?

"Heika."

"It's Yuuri," he said absently. "You know it's Yuuri… Conrad!"

Conrad stood several feet away, watching, cautious.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you."

A laugh escaped.

"Despite the fact that the world is upside down right now, you could never interrupt me."

Conrad sat across the table from him. He was forced to look away as Conrad searched his face. Sitting across the table from him was so…

"I'm sorry," Conrad said softly.

Yuuri's eyes flew to his.

"You don't have to keep apologizing. I can't imagine how strange this must be for you. And this," he brought a hand up to motion to both of them but thought better of it. "Er. Everything. I'm at least still where I started out last night. When."

"Strange, yes. But there are worse things. You looked troubled."

"There are just so many questions. Did you just think 'That looks like Yuuri. I have to buy that for him.'?"

"It did draw me… So yes, it did say, "I will buy this for Yuuri." Murata's idea that it was drawn to me because of you makes sense to me. Was it fate? Would I have bought that goblet otherwise, for you? I don't know. For me, it was only a couple of days ago. It's odd."

"Give or take a decade."

Conrad's hand closed over his, and his hand turned automatically, clasping their fingers together.

"Thank you… for everything. I mean, really thank you," Yuuri said.

"Tell me how I could do less."

"I hope I'm as much a help in the past."

"I can almost assure you that you are. If he's seeing you, he'll have help. Have you ever been able to leave anything alone?"

A little laugh bubbled up. "I never did grow out of that."

"Good."

Conrad's hand squeezed his before Conrad stood. Yuuri must have made some sound as he too moved from his chair. Conrad's eyes sharpened with concern and he stepped closer - So close Yuuri had trouble looking at him, had trouble standing there as he could smell him and could not touch. Conrad's fingers cupped his jaw, and he clenched his eyes shut. But every shred of control was nearly lost when all the air from his lungs escaped… Conrad's lips had pressed gently to his cheek. Sweet, a comforting gesture to a sign of distress, he reasoned. But from Conrad? What else had he seen in those eyes besides concern? That something that made him feel the tremble start in the small of his back.

"Please go."

"Yuuri."

"Please!"

Please stay.

He breathed as the footsteps faded away, and the trembling stopped.

* * *

_Their first kiss had been on the day after Yuuri's 21__st__ birthday. Before any words of love had been spoken, it had still made him think. Conrad had been tired as two men, gracefully planting himself in Yuuri's room as they spoke and petering off into sleep in the armed chair of Yuuri's room. Yuuri had not minded… in fact, he would have called himself amused as he had laid a light blanket over Conrad's shoulders and on impulse kissed the slightly mussed brown head. Conrad had come out of that heavy, drugging sleep so fast he had nearly tipped the chair. It had been luck that Yuuri had been close enough to grab an arm, and coincidence that had brought their faces close. But to what purpose, Yuuri's memories did not reveal, as his eyes had closed and their lips met. He had been moved inside, about as gently as Conrad had rocked the chair, but he had stayed, letting his eyes open as Conrad shifted away. He was glad he had, as it allowed him to watch Conrad taste his lips. That sight alone had been enough to take any thoughts from Yuuri's head, but Conrad had recovered nicely, his eyes warming._

"_Happy belated birthday, Heika."_

_It had been all Yuuri could do not to laugh, laying his head on Conrad's shoulder._

* * *

Yuuri took a shuddering breath, feeling wakefulness wash over him as forcefully as the air he took into his lungs. For one fleeting moment the possibility that it had all been a dream was bright. But he remembered the hand Murata had lain on his shoulder, and Yozak interrogating this new Conrad. 

And the look in Conrad's eyes. It was going to take more than a day, more time than he could endure, before his heart could understand that the face it saw wasn't quite what it wanted.

Lying back down, he cupped the pendant's stone loosely in his palm. Morgif crooned from behind him, but there was no answer from the empty space on the bed.

They had never been dependant on the touch of the other to sleep, but even without contact, the presence, the sound of another person… He had spent hours of his life simply listening to Conrad breathe. It was as much as a caress as the careless brush of fingers as they passed during the day.

He drifted into an uneasy sleep, waiting for the answering breath that never came.


	4. The Mirrored Day, Part One

Chapter 4 – The Mirrored Day – Part One

* * *

PAST - Conrad

* * *

Between Yuuri, Murata and Yozak they had come up with a fine amount of worry for Conrad's strange behavior. Yuuri had come up later, knocking hesitantly before he entered. He had carried a mug of tea, but Conrad knew he had been checking up on him. It was not every day that he had what seemed to be a mental breakdown after all. It had been sweet gesture, a side of him that Yuuri was known for. But Conrad had sent him away with little more than a reassurance that there was nothing for Yuuri to do. It had eased the frown on Yuuri's face only a little. There was little he could or should tell the boy. Conrad knew there was danger in dwelling too much on the past.

He swept the contents off of the table in his bedchamber and found the best gluing putty he could find. If he could just fit enough pieces together, just enough to approximate a cup… But even the largest pieces of the shattered goblet were small, and the smallest like sand. He had sat, hunched with his neck growing stiff, moving pieces around, turning, shuffling, until he couldn't remember which pieces he had moved and which he hadn't. He focused as if his life depended on it… and it did. But the pieces he had joined so far were small, none larger than the tip of his thumb. And if he did not find all the pieces tonight, then he would try again in the morning, and through that day, and the next. He would get help, as much as he could.

When he slept his brain was too fuzzy for thought. But he woke with a name on his lips: Anissina.

"Can it be joined?" he demanded, having dragged her half across the castle in his haste for her to see the broken pottery.

If it could be joined by magic, or any means necessary to make it whole... Means unavailable to him. Anissina hummed as she looked over the shards, turning over the small pieces he had been able to fit together.

"We could grind it down, add something to join it, and reform it," she murmured.

"The etching needs to stay intact."

"It's not very much intact now."

Aghast, he realized she was right. Even if he put the little pieces together, pieces so small blowing on them would move them, the etching would not be whole.

"Some things were meant to stay broken," Anissina said. "Yuuri understands.."

"This isn't about the gift!"

"I'll think on this," she said, slipping out while he turned this new realization over in his mind.

If he had copied down the etching before it had been broken, they could have created it again. If he had not had it sent to Yuuri at the castle early, it would have stayed whole. If he had… His eyes drifted closed.

If he had drank from the cup before it had wanted the blood of the king, it would have emerged on Yuuri's birthday, and found that despite his Mazoku blood, his human weakness would have precluded him. It would have found the one strongest, the one closest to him: the blood of the Maou. Yuuri would have watched him die before his own life was taken.

And if there was nothing that could have been done, if he had tried to fight the spirit in the furure before it got to Yuuri?

It would have been waiting ten years to taste Yuuri's blood. Conrad could not have stopped it. Not even if the Conrad from the past had come forward…

If he, Conrad from the future, was in the past… Then was the Conrad of the past in the future? If Yuuri, his Yuuri, had heard the message relayed across the glass, then perhaps Yuuri was also working. If Yuuri knew anything it was that Conrad was doing everything he could to return. He had promised.

It was some strange mental state. Conrad pushed himself away from the desk. He could not be caught in the future and still push forward now. This was not just a problem. It was a war. Saving the life of the Maou had been achieved. The next goal was returning everyone where they needed to be. Not just for his personal happiness, but to set the right people where they belonged in time. The person he was now and the person he had been might be similar but the places they served in, the people they were around... they were uniquely suited to fill those roles.

"Let no one in or out of this room," he ordered the sentry he had stationed at his door. If the man found it odd to be guarding a bedroom he didn't show it. But he couldn't risk a maid sweeping up things best left alone.

Allay's Antiques. He gripped the paper.

If there was one, there might be another.

* * *

The shop was small and dusty, which was much what his memory of it had been from ten years previous. It was tucked into a corner of a nearby town, in between a baker and a bookseller: Two typical town companions for an unassuming storefront that bore only the name "Allay's" on a rickety wooden board. It was the eclectic spread of merchandise in the storefront that advertised what it was, spread along the edges of the windows which were only clean from head level down and even then only somewhat. It seemed all the advertisement anyone needed, if they were in search of a faded toy, a useful tool… or a goblet.

There was a feeble bell that rang as they entered, Conrad followed by Yuuri and then Yozak. Much as he had tried to go on his own, they had clung like burrs, not only insisting on coming along but that they all went together in a well padded cart, Yozak driving them like a merry fool while Conrad and Yuuri sat in the back in half silence, half conversation that focused primarily on Yuuri's week… as Conrad could hardly share the events of his. If Yuuri had been puzzled by Conrad asking him to detail his week, a week that Conrad has ostensibly been there for part of, he didn't show it. He responded with Yuuri's typical level of enthusiasm and wry resignation. It took little to agree or disagree, even without a clear recollection of the events -- because as he had dealt with Gwendal and Gunter a good deal longer than Yuuri, he did not have to imagine with any great difficulty.

The seemingly random clutter from the window continued as they wound towards the desk through stacks and cases that held books and glassware and other artifacts.

"Sir Weller!" The proprietor oozed out behind them. "What brings you back again? And the Maou!" Yuuri took a subtle step closer to Conrad, and for good reason as the man had a few inches over Yozak, and had a huge mane of wheat colored hair and beard that made him resemble a predatory feline… a surprising sight in the small room.

"Mr. Allay… It's about the goblet I purchased."

"Ah, yes! Fine piece of work, very fine. Bought it out of an estate… has to have been two hundred years ago if it's a day. I've been selling things out of that lot of things ever since."

"Do you happen to know the history of the goblet by any chance? As you know it was a gift, and…"

"Can't say that I do. That's the only one like it I've seen… Lot of local potters tried their hands at this kind of thing through the years… Hard to say when it might've been made for that matter. We had the thought that it was older though, give the old Script on it. Hence you paid a prettier price than I would've charged without it. Nice piece, though. You dissatisfied?"

"No, quite the contrary… We wanted to see if there was another as that one has unfortunately been broken. Shattered. The inscription on it was of particular interest."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm not sure how much help I can be to you. I have some other goblets that might be a nice replacement."

"Do you happen to know what the text on it read?"

"Can't say that I recall... I know that my nephew was interested in it at one time, but you know how those things go. I'm sorry."

"And is there any other place that I could look?"

"Not that I can think of… I'm only one around here that would have that kind of thing… And that particular goblet is at least 200 years old. I'm afraid even if there were another, the likelihood of you finding it… You could search another 200 years and never come across one."

Conrad's breath hissed out from between his teeth. Even if that was the answer that he was expecting, it made it no easier to actually hear it.

"I thank you for your time. If you do happen to remember anything, could you please let us know?"

"Of course. Could I interest you in…?"

"I'm sorry. Not today."

Yuuri opened his mouth as though he were about to ask a question, but closed it and turned with them toward the door. His actions must be confusing to Yuuri, obsessing over a goblet that had its danger removed. Unfortunately, that danger still lurked he thought as he gave Yuuri a hand up into the wagon bed. It was all he could do not to drive his fist into the wood. The pain in his fist would feel better than the torment inside.

"Drive on, Yozak. Our business is finished here."

The wheels began to roll, and his stomach with them.

"Sir Weller!"

Conrad's head shot up, his hand clamping on Yozak's arm hard enough to make the man squeak. Allay stood outside of his shop door waving a sheet of yellowed paper over his head like a flag. Conrad scrambled down, Yuuri at his heels like a puppy.

"Our talk of the goblet made me start to wonder, and I chanced to look in a pile of papers my nephew had left. Is this by any chance the etching from the goblet?"

Conrad's hand trembled when he took the paper, tracing the lines with his eyes, lines he had come to hate.

"Yes. It is. Do you know what it reads?"

"An old poem of blood, is all I can tell. Perhaps you can find someone with more knowledge of the old tongue. You're welcome to take it with you. But take care not to lose that one… once that's gone, you'll have no recourse but to curse your own luck."

With this paper he could take the shards to Anissina, and into the newly formed goblet they could etch the words. And if that happened, then… _Yuuri_. He closed his eyes. And yet there was still the Yuuri who was beside him now.


	5. The Mirrored Day, Part Two

**Chapter 5** – The Mirrored Day – Part Two

* * *

**PRESENT** – Yuuri

Yuuri drowsed under the sway of the wagon, jerking up just in time to catch himself from tumbling over as the cart they rode in dipped into a particularly vicious rut. The soft leather of his boots brushed against the side of Conrad's, and for a moment he stared agape at the familiar soles, before catching himself – but not before color had flooded into his cheeks. He cleared his throat and sat up straight, trying to right his body and his emotions at the same time. That sweet bite of love that wasn't returned sat heavy on him, and he fished for the stone around his neck. He knew he was fooling no one. Still, he tensed as Conrad rose to his feet and started toward him. He let out the breath he had been holding when, instead of what Yuuri could not place, he laid a hand on Yozak's shoulders and gave a quick direction to the side of the lane.

They had arrived.

Yuuri felt a strange sense of déjà vu as he peered into the musty shop window. Though he had ridden through this town before, he did not remember stopping. And this shop full of jumble seemed as if it would be something he remembered. He opened his mouth to ask Murata what significance this town had, but he stood by Yozak, speaking in furtive whispers. Conrad stood behind him, leaned against the wagon with folded arms, and a look on his face that would rival any thundercloud. While the conversation went on, none could enter the shop, and Conrad's eyes leapt from the arguing pair, to Yuuri, to the shop's sign and back again. It was clear, to Yuuri, that he meant to get on with it.

"Perhaps!" Conrad said, loud enough to stop Yozak in the midst of speaking. "Perhaps Yuuri should wait out here."

Yozak looked pleased while Murata's face came nowhere near to the outrage Yuuri had only to glance at his own reflection to see.

"There's no curse in there that's going to leap out and accost me!" Yuuri protested.

"There are old things in there, and old things bear old curses," Yozak said, mirroring Conrad's position.

"Curses that must be invoked to become active," Ken said, stepping around the larger man to the door. "This curse was brought about by a gift and an action – Yuuri drinking from the goblet. So long as he doesn't touch anything, he should be fine. He's right, there should be nothing here that should 'leap out.'"

"I could just not breathe if it would make it any easier," Yuuri muttered.

That brought scowls from them all.

"I promise I won't touch anything. But as this is my life we're talking about, there's no way you're keeping me out of there."

Morgif "hur-hurr-ed" in agreement.

"Sir Weller! It has been a while, hasn't it? Years! You wound me." Allay greeted Conrad with a clap to the shoulder that Conrad had clearly braced himself for. "What brings you…"

Allay's eyes trailed from Conrad to Yuuri, who stood a step behind and was struck again by a feeling of wrongness, of familiarity, one that sent a chill down his spine and a prickle at the back of his neck as the blue eyes studied him intensely.

"And the Maou…" Allay said softly.

Conrad turned, glancing at Yuuri because of this strange response.

"You've met?"

"No," Allay answered. "I have not been favored by a visit from the Maou. Once, a gift… the year of his majority. It is a younger face I see, an oddity. Pay no mind to an old man, as time adds to the images in my head!"

Yuuri sent Murata a telling look, and was met with a shrewd look, one of confirmation. There was more to this occurrence than met the eye.

"About that…"

"The goblet has broken," Allay interrupted Conrad. "Am I right? Perhaps I am more sensitive to events than I thought! A little bit psychic, eh? We have the paper, the log of the research done on the goblet and tracing of etching on the side. Old writing, older than we use now. But fascinating, yes, fascinating."

Yuuri gasped. "There's a copy of the etching? A copy that was made before you sold the goblet?"

"Yes, of course. My nephew, he was interested in these things. He liked to get to them before I sold them, because people are ever so careless when they take these trinkets away." Allay sent an amused glance at Conrad. "As we can see here in this case."

Yuuri breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing for the first time since he had entered the shop.

"Can I sent home a trinket with you as a gift?" Allay asked with hope.

The other three answered before Yuuri could open his mouth.

"No!"

* * *

Yuuri held the paper with the etching on it that they had made themselves carefully, his desk spread with books in the ancient tongue. Others had taken copies as well with orders to find the best translation before morning. One way or another he would find out what was written on this goblet, and one way or another… Conrad had found it, too. He was as sure of that as he was of the weight of the paper in his hands.

"Come in," he called absently, as a knock resounded in the room.

"Yuuri."

For a quick moment Yuuri's heart leapt to his throat at the sound of his name in that solemn voice. For just a moment. There must have been something raw and naked on his face when he looked at Conrad this time, something in his eyes that made Conrad move from his stiff position beside the closed door.

He took Yuuri's shoulders, making him jump as he tried to compose himself.

"I'm sorry. Sorry, I can't…"

"Don't be ashamed of these feelings," Conrad chided. "It's bad enough that you feel lonely and abandoned… betrayed… But you don't have to hide them from me."

"Never betrayal. Never."

Against his will, against all reason, Yuuri felt a sob escape before he could take a calming breath and quell it. Just one, and he breathed, his hand fisting on the back of Conrad's jacket.

"Will you remember any of this when you go back?"

Conrad smiled against his hair, he could feel it.

"No, I don't think so."

"Good!"

Conrad chuckled, and he smoothed Yuuri's shirt. "But if I did, I would still wait for this."

Yuuri's eyes stung. "Why do you always know the right thing to say?"

"You and I, we've been together a long time. We'll bring back the version of me who will love you as you deserve to be loved."

"Are you… disappointed?"

"Yuuri." The light censure was back in his voice. "Who could look into their own future and be disappointed in seeing happiness? Consort to the Maou."

Yuuri chortled. "Consort to the Maou indeed. And the Maou isn't so very displeased about it himself."

"That's the happiest I've heard you."

Yuuri smiled, pressing his face to the hollow of Conrad's throat, breathing deep. "Just being near you. Just to touch you…" He pressed a gentle kiss to Conrad's neck, felt him shudder. "Oh, Conrad, I love you so much."

He blinked, shook his head vigorously as he leaned away. "I mean…"

He felt Conrad's hand slide up over his heart, felt gentle fingers caress the pendant stone, and felt his heart stutter in his chest as two images, two men, he had kept apart merged. That was the only reason he had to explain why he returned the gentle kiss, why his arms raised and he opened his body to press against Conrad's, why he didn't hesitate.

He didn't now… Conrad's lips met his with insistence, molding their mouths together before nipping with an urgency that Yuuri's fevered brain crested with. He moaned at Conrad's thrusting tongue, met it, fed on it.

He tore at Conrad's jacket, feeling it fall as Conrad's hands raced back to sweep over him from shoulder blade to thigh and pressed him closer still as they stumbled blindly toward the bed. Deftly, Yuuri's buttons were undone, his pants loosened, and Yuuri moaned as Conrad slipped down the back and gripped him with both hands, held him tightly as they moved together. He barely missed sitting on Conrad's hands as he dropped like a stone onto the mattress, a flailing hand the only thing that kept him from falling all the way back.

Conrad knelt, stalling Yuuri's brain entirely and merely the lightest stroke on his thighs had them trembling open, and he gulped.

The sound that escaped his throat as Conrad's mouth closed around him was distressingly desperate.

Through the haze of lust all he could see was the face he loved, and the pleasure… His hips jerked as Conrad's hand caressed him.

As Conrad's tongue swirled around the tip, Yuuri's hands vised in the shaggy hair. But then Conrad sealed his mouth around him and sucked… and thought was no more.

The heat and warmth undid him as the pressure of Conrad's mouth around him became unbearable.

He swallowed Conrad's name as he inhaled, strangling his cry before it emerged as a shout the whole castle would hear. When his eyes cleared, and he remembered to breathe, Conrad's hands were on his hips, his breathing quick and shallow against Yuuri's stomach. And he was hard, pressed against his leg that had been trapped between Conrad's thighs.

Legs trembling he half stood, tugging on Conrad with a strength he barely knew he possessed, shifting until their positions were reversed, and it was his hands that fumbled with Conrad's belt, Conrad's pants, until Conrad sat on the bed, until his hands could feel, could grasp and touch, and his mouth could worship. He let his palm drift slowly up it. So familiar… Conrad's knuckles were white, gripping the edge of the bed with an intensity that Yuuri saw through his lashes, as his lips trailed the length of him, taking little licks while his fingers teased where his mouth could not.

Close… so close.

Yuuri pried Conrad's hand from the edge of the bed, spreading the tense fingers and wrapping them gently around the shaft in front of him.

He looked up into the well-loved face, flushed, gorgeous in a heady way that had his lips curving.

"Let me see you," Yuuri murmured.

Conrad gasped.

* * *

**PAST – Conrad**

"Yuuri!"

Conrad rose from sleep like a drowning man out of water, the mattress unsteady beneath his rigid body, his hand reaching for what was already hard and aching while the taste of Yuuri lay sweet on his lips. It took barely a stroke before he trembled, his body ready for the aching rush of pleasure as his dazed eyes saw only Yuuri's face.

As he lay back, panting, Conrad's hands reached for the dark hair he could see only in his mind's eye. "Yuuri."


	6. Take Me Back

Chapter Six – Take Me Back

* * *

PAST – Conrad

* * *

Yozak had come to his room to fetch him, the rest they had sent him to by force, to let him know that Anissina was close to finishing the goblet. There had been little rest for him anyway.

"My only hope was to find the etching," Conrad said as he paced. "Anissina can reform the cup, and we can etch the engraving on it again. It… it's the only hope I have."

Yozak stared long and hard at him. "You seem taken beyond all reason with this goblet, speaking of it as if it were going to save your life. What about it do you know that we don't? You have the Maou staring after you with fear in his eyes! He half thinks you're going mad, or going to disappear. And as he's asked me to keep an eye on you… I can't say I disagree with him."

"If this doesn't work, Yozak, you may see worse from me yet. You may lock me up when you hear what I have to tell you. And I will tell you… But not until I am sure there is no other way. It's not sinister, and don't be afraid. I have no intention of going anywhere. I will be at Yuuri's side… One way or another."

He stopped still as the footsteps echoed in the hallway.

"We have the translation and the goblet," Annissina announced, flanked by two men who each bore one of them.

Conrad pushed himself to his feet, feeling at once old, and very weary. After this there were no chances left. He held out his hand for the paper, nearly snatched it back before taking it. He motioned Yozak to take the goblet and dismissed the messengers. Annissina, Murata edging in behind her, and Yuuri pressing through. It seemed he would have an audience. He glanced at Yuuri once before looking down.

He read through it quickly, then again, reading aloud for Yozak's benefit and forming the words as though the meanings were unfamiliar to him.

"Blood from blood

And bound in time

This chalice cries

For twisted vine."

It was irony, irony written on a cursed goblet, a verse of the desire for wine. It spoke nothing of what brought him to this place in time. It could have been cursed for hundreds of years, from its very formation. Only then would the verse make sense, taunting the owner to drink from it, and fall victim to it.

No one was meant to go back into the past to change the events… No one would have been meant to give the accursed goblet to a loved one and then see them snatched from them because of it. Yuuri would live to see his twenty-sixth year. He would be there to see him, in cape and crown, addressing the room… Regal. All that was regal.

"Conrad?"

Conrad shook himself from his thoughts. The goblet sat dark in Yozak's hand, elegant and unthreatening. He could say honestly now that he hated that goblet. He briefly thought of sending for wine, but discarded the idea. It didn't matter what liquid was in there, so long as he drank from it. He gingerly poured an inch of water from the pitcher into the goblet, careful not to touch it while it still sat in Yozak's hands.

The pitcher was sat with a clunk on the side table. His fingers trembled, noticeably, as he reached for the goblet, and it was all he could see. The fingers of both hands curled around it, and his eyes closed, conjuring up the image of Yuuri in his mind. Yuuri, kind and full of life. Yuuri, rash and loving. Yuuri, lusty and his… His as much as any king was any one person's. He was the one who shared his bed, he was the one who shared his life, his secrets, his love.

"_Take me back,_" he whispered furiously in his mind. "_I belong to him._"

And placing the goblet to his lips, he drank. He shuddered; The water was bitter. He waited, opened his eyes. And saw four pairs of eyes studying him with interest and concern.

He looked to Yuuri, always to Yuuri, and saw his name, did not hear it, as Yuuri a day from the age of sixteen called out for him.

It didn't work, his mind pronounced. It didn't work. It didn't work!

He did the only thing he could: he ran. Pushing past Murata, he levered himself off of the opposite wall and through the corridor. His stomach was bucking inside of him, the bitter taste of bile burning in his throat. The walls were too close. He couldn't breathe, even as he moved, he couldn't take his breath. Was someone calling his name? He couldn't…

He burst through the outside doors, the balcony wide and curved and open. He fell to his knees, gasping for breath as he braced himself up against the stones.

He knelt there, in the midst of the balcony, and held the goblet close. Rain stung his eyes as it fell, streaming in rivulets down his skin, but he barely noticed it except to blink it away. He could only beg. He had never regretted his human blood like this.

"Please. Return me to him."

He knelt until he shivered, until rain was mixed with bitter tears and gentle hands led him in out of the cold.

* * *

They had left him in a comfortable chair, festooned in his room with a blanket over his lap like an aged man. It was Yuuri who stayed with him, who sent the rest away. He held a tea cup, a pair to the one that sat near Conrad's hand. Oddly enough he did not feel broken. Somehow, he felt numb, with just a crackle of pain as he smiled for the benefit of the young maou's serious face.

"Don't worry, Heika. I'm sorry that I worried you."

Yuuri's hand tightened over his.

"You were in pain, Conrad. You're hurting. Why am I not supposed to worry? You won't say a word as to what the goblet is about. Don't you trust me?!"

"Yuuri." He laid his free hand over Yuuri's, feeling regret at the trouble he had caused him. Remorse he would deal with later. "I do, but…"

"What am I to you?" Yuuri blurted out, looking half as though his mouth had gotten the best of him, and half on edge for an answer. "You named me. You… When I arrived, you saved me, you… You apologized to me for the goblet, but it was like you didn't know me."

"You are someone very precious to me," Conrad answered, measuring care with feeling. "Yuuri… Yuuri is someone very precious to me."

More precious than the boy beside him could fathom, though Conrad had always tried to show his loyalty, which was rooted in affection and had grown to love. There was nothing in his life more precious than laying close to Yuuri, listening to the life of the man beside him, who had come to this world to fill a hole that seemed that it could not be filled… to become king, and yet there were many other spaces to fill, until he grew and rooted, and twined himself in until it seemed that that space had held Yuuri always.

"Don't worry for me. The goblet… I was overwrought with guilt and trying to save you." He pressed the young man's hand. "I'll be beside you. I am not trying to leave you. I can't speak of what caused my reaction today, I can't tell you its cause. Someday soon, perhaps. But I don't yet understand it. Can you accept that?"

He peered down into Yuuri's eyes and saw the beginnings of a smile. "Then I'll just have to take care of you until you're able to tell me." He sighed, and let his cheek rest on Conrad's forearm. "You know I'll always be here for you, right?"

"I know, Yuuri."

He stopped himself before he bent to kiss the tousled head, but he felt the warmth and the closeness of the child that soothed a corner of him that wanted to scream.

He left Yuuri asleep in the chair, walked to the wide window and stared up. The sky had cleared, and the stars shone, and they looked as they always had. Tomorrow was Yuuri's birthday. Yuuri would make his choice, and with all his heart Conrad had renewed his pledge to stay protect and serve him. He would renew that pledge tomorrow. And somehow he knew that from that there was no return to his own time, after that he had no chance at all. He could not pledge to this boy, and divide himself further. He could pledge himself with a whole heart, without regret, when there was nothing left to do.

When he closed his eyes, he could still feel the embrace, the feel of Yuuri's arms around his neck, pushing himself up those few inches he had strived to grow but never gained. He had to go up on tiptoes to reach Conrad's mouth without accommodation. But Conrad would not have changed that, not for anything. Not the low groan that rumbled through Yuuri's chest and into Conrad, as if he were that happy just to be near him. Not the way Yuuri clung to him, or the way Yuuri would come to him and rest his chin on his shoulder from behind.

But he wondered how long it would be before those feelings faded. Hadn't it been just a week ago, all that was innocent, that Yuuri had scrubbed his back in the bath? Or had that been some other life.

Or had that been this life? If this was to be his life now, here, watching over Yuuri… There was nothing to do but to finish what he had been given. He had carried that soul, and he would do what was right by Yuuri. No matter what, he would do right by Yuuri, even if it meant staying here to do it.

And as the determination in his heart spoke louder than his longing for his own time, he scarcely felt some of his memories begin to crumble away.

* * *


	7. Banquet

Chapter 7 – Banquet

* * *

PRESENT – Yuuri

* * *

He heard Conrad stir. He had thrown a robe over his disheveled state, waking from a doze to find himself cozy against Conrad's chest and not having any idea what he was supposed to think about it.

"I think these words here are 'blood,'" he said as Conrad came up behind him.

"Is that good?"

"I don't know."

"Yuuri." Conrad knelt beside him. "About what happened."

"Yes."

"You love…" Conrad's face tensed as he considered before continuing, "Conrad. And I don't… even know what you are thinking."

"I do love Conrad. And what a thing to twist your brain in knots over. And it comes back to… Conrad is Conrad. I couldn't get my head around it."

"I understand. I left my Yuuri two days ago, barely older than a child, and come to find you…" He paused, clearly lost for words. "And you… well, look at you."

Startled, Yuuri nearly followed the order of the declaration before the realization of it sank in and heat burned all the way from his cheeks to the tips of his ears.

"And the way you look at me with those eyes… I never knew I wanted that so much until I saw it and knew it was for me… mostly for me."

"If this goes the way we don't want, we are all we'll have. You are second class to no one. You would have missed out on ten years of your life."

"And of yours."

"The simple truth is that I do love you… I love you Conrad, and I could never tell my heart not to feel it."

"You mean, even at 16 you…"

Yuuri laughed.

"You had to let me find my place first."

Yuuri started at the knock on the door, and allowed entrance to Murata.

There was a speculative look on Murata's face as he took in their appearance…one that he let drop as he met Yuuri's eyes. He could see the source of the speculation though, in Conrad's rumpled, partially tucked in shirt, and the fact he was sitting in a robe.

"Is everything okay?" he asked Murata.

"Yes. I was just checking in. Is everything okay?" Murata echoed.

"Of course. The banquet prep…"

"There are not," Murata said, interrupting. "Ever two endings to a story."

Yuuri's stomach clenched.

"I'll check in with you later," Murata said, slipping out.

He met Conrad's eyes, before closing his own.

"I loved you for a long time before we were together, you know. I would have moved mountains just to keep you with me. And you might have noticed, but… I don't hide things well. But I tried, I really did."

"Wh…"

He knew he was confusing Conrad with this line of conversation. But somehow, somehow he needed to explain their past in order for Conrad to understand what he was feeling now.

"I was afraid I would be a poor substitute."

"Yuuri…"

"No, let me. Once I knew, I didn't think I could love you… Should? Years…" Yuuri resigned himself, looking up at Conrad's dear, yet different face.

Conrad cupped Yuuri's jaw with his free hand, startling him into silence.

"You don't have to." He stroked Yuuri's cheek with his thumb. "Yuuri, you love who you love."

"If I'm already in a relationship with you… What does that make it for you?"

"A relationship I'm five years too late to begin."

Yuuri stood, dislodging the hand from his face, and watched Conrad straighten as he stepped closer and pulled himself up to his full height.

"And now?"

"It seems not even time could keep me from you."

Time had not kept Conrad from him, but if what had happened was fixed, then it was keeping the wrong one.

* * *

He was raw inside, in a place he had told himself he was okay. But it had all been lies. Murata had seen it, though they did not speak of it even when Murata had returned, and though they spent half the morning observing various details for the banquet.

It was a blessing to be able to do something with his hands, even if they had always told him that helping out on his own birthday celebration was wrong to the highest degree. He had fought that battle and won every year. He knew if someone tried to stop him now, his reaction might be… slightly less rational. This he was supposed to be passionate about. This attempt at perfection for his big day. National pride. The love of his subjects and friends. Gifts and food and affirmation. Decorating committees, storage rooms, goblets. He didn't hate his birthday, but he occasionally wondered what all of the fuss was about. It was just his day, not even the day they celebrated for Shin Makoku. He had drawn the line at a parade after his sixteenth birthday. Conrad had helped him then. Baseball games. Lessons in the art of fighting. Every strand of his life was somehow touched by Conrad.

He sought Conrad out almost immediately when they were finished. There were words bottled up inside of him that had to be let out, so many words that he turned over in his head that Conrad had to hear. Something that he had been too afraid to face. Even to speak. Unfortunately, they boiled down the same phrase over and over.

"I don't know if I could be happy with you," he blurted out to the quiet-eyed man. "And I mean you. I just…don't know."

"I know."

Yuuri sighed. "I want him back."

"I know. I've been thinking, too. And you know what else I know?"

"What's that?"

"I want the opportunity to go back, so I can discover all of this for myself. Each smile you tried to hide… each little act of love. I don't know… when all of this is over, when time rights itself, if I'll ever get that chance. I don't know if I'll know that I missed it. But it feels strange to be envious of myself for getting to know all of those things. Not that this means less to me, but I know that it means more to him. And I know that someone who loved you had to break that goblet, but I wish it could have been me. I wish I could have pushed him back here and broken it myself. I wish I could have done that for you. I'm so sorry, Yuuri."

"Me too." Yuuri closed his eyes. There was one other thing he had to do. "About the banquet."

"Yes?"

"You'll sit at my right hand at the birthday banquet, as you were meant to."

Conrad nodded. "All right. You should rest some more. Today is the big day. Happy birthday, Yuuri."

* * *

_"Your hair's sticking out all over!"_

_"So is yours!"_

_Yuuri sputtered as Conrad upended the little bucket of water over his head. He scraped the hair out of his eyes and blinked rapidly, nearly laughing when he saw the triumphal amusement on Conrad's face._

_"Now it's my turn."_

_But he did it slowly, pouring the warm water over Conrad's head, watching as the wet, brown strands flowed with the water over his cheekbones and down his nose. Even his eyelashes were wet, and they gleamed as his eyes opened and the tawny brown eyes considered him._

_With a boost of his hands Conrad levered himself up onto the edge of the pool, leaving his towel as a hazy puddle in the water._

_He had often considered what they looked like together. He was darker in almost every way, making Conrad seem almost fair beside him. And though he had grown, compact was the word he would have used to describe himself, never reaching Conrad's long, graceful lines… or his long reach._

_And they reached for him now. His knees settled on either side of Conrad's hips, hands slipping up the long, slender neck, tracing the lines of his ears in lazy strokes._

_"What could you be thinking?" he whispered._

_"That I like seeing you above me."_

_"Ohhh."_

_He was aching by the time the kiss had broken._

_"Yuuri, you know I love you, right?"_

_"Of course. I love you, too."_

_Conrad kissed him gently. "I'll miss you."_

_"No." Yuuri eyes darted up, watching the familiar surroundings of the bath begin to fade. "Conrad, you won't miss me, because you're coming back. Soon!"_

_"I'm sorry, Yuuri."_

_Yuuri reached for him, nearly cried out when his hand swept through him as though he weren't there. And he was fading._

_"Conrad, no! NO!!"_

_His scream was cut off as Conrad appeared again, clothed and nonchalant up ahead._

_Yuuri ran toward him, mired in dreams._

_Which one was it, he wondered. The one from the past, or his?_

_He saw kind eyes and a gentle smile and he faltered. For a moment… he couldn't tell._

_"They could stay in each other's place. They are the same. One Conrad to guide a king is the same as the other. They would become each other. Different than they were before but the same. They have only to want to stay where they are."_

_"But Conrad would want to come back, wouldn't he?" Yuuri asked, spinning around when Conrad disappeared._

_"You have done well with this one. He would return, without regret to meet you again. You have done what was necessary to secure his place beside you – and a little of Conrad's love for you, his want of you, was exchanged when they met. They touched, you know, hands against the pane of time, though they should not have, and they took a piece of each other. Now they share you."_

_"But Conrad wants to come back, right?" he asked, desperate this time._

_"For a place at the king's side, wouldn't he?"_

_Wouldn't he?_

* * *

He woke no more rested than he had been before, and dressed still tormented by the nightmares. Yuuri leaned heavily against the door jamb outside of the hall where his birthday banquet had been laid out, his chest tight and his heart in his throat. He couldn't panic, not now. He had always had someone to turn to. Murata could give him advice. Yozak could assure him. Conrad would… Conrad would… He stared at his hand. His dream had been desperately wrong. The two Conrads could not stay as they were. It was not the same. Just as he could no longer go back to being sixteen. If it went on as it was now, it could end only badly. He was already withdrawing from this Conrad, and they both knew it.

When he walked through this door, Conrad would be standing, waiting for him. Just as he had been for the past ten years. Except this time it would be different. And that was the reality he was reluctant to face. This was a milestone, an event, and it would only emphasize what was horribly wrong and disfigured in his life, inside of him. Every day had only served to twist it further. He had tried, how he had tried, to fix it. But there was only one fix, and that man was still missing somewhere in his past.

He pressed his own palm to his own heart, since he could not press Conrad's there, and whispered, "I love you, Conrad."

As he entered the hall, he saw reassurance from his friends. It was one night, one dinner. But Conrad's eyes reflected some of the misery that had begun to weigh him down.

Yuuri raised his hand for the toast, watched Conrad raise the newly-repaired, cursed, goblet. He extended his hand, waiting for the meeting of the cups, for the clear ring of the sound that meant their fates had met. He felt somehow that they had come full circle. And his world was torn in two.

* * *

Just uploaded: Dress Up - Yozak/Murata. A couple of short ficlets that can stand alone or as a side to "Time Imperfect."

* * *


	8. Yesterdays

**Chapter 8 – Yesterday**

* * *

PAST – Conrad

* * *

The morning of the birthday banquet dawned bright. Yuuri had been taken back to his own bed after he had fallen asleep beside Conrad's armchair, a fact that had embarrassed him since he was insistent on not talking about it. Conrad had slept in his own. Mostly he had slept. If it was uneasy, then he had only his circumstances to blame. Two hours of riding a horse next to the open carriage that carried the young maou through the streets for his birthday parade had not done him any favors. In fact, it had only allowed him to shut out more and more of what was truly going on. He could not focus on Yuuri's safety while focusing on something else. And so Yuuri took precedence.

Yuuri caught him before he was ushered into the banquet hall to mingle while the last preparations were put in place for Yuuri's entrance.

"You are going to sit at my right hand at the birthday banquet, right Conrad?"

He put effort into the smile. "As long as you need me, I'll be there. Heika."

Yuuri smiled, and they were pulled apart. One by one the guests were seated, foreign dignitaries, friends. No one around him paid attention as he sat in his seat, at the right hand of the seat of the boy, the man, who was dearest to him. On this day, at this time, 10 years in the future, he should have been sitting right here, waiting for Yuuri. They would rise, and Yuuri would enter. They would toast his health and long life. Yuuri would reach for his hand and link their fingers for just a moment before beginning the meal.

His hand fisted, and his breath came hard through his teeth as the thought battered through his defenses. Here and now was not the time to mourn.

The announcement rang out for the entrance of the Maou.

He caught himself as he stood, resting fingertips on the table to steady himself. For just a moment, his vision blurred, doubled, until the sea of faces swam around in front of him. It left as soon as it came, but he was shaken, standing straddle legged in case he felt any more vertigo. Yozak to his right and Murata directly across from him, they stood as sentinels waiting for the entrance of the young king. For this event, this birthday, he was in full court regalia. Even Wolfram was there, back at the castle after some errand Conrad did not recall.

It felt nostalgic. With a start, he remembered this banquet clearly. A mount of potatoes sat in front of him, piled and shaped to look like a crown by some industrious kitchen worker. The goblet had sat at Yuuri's hand, he had been that taken with it, and on a whim it sat there now at Conrad's hand this time. No small reminder.

His grimace softened as the shout went up and Yuuri entered, resplendent even at 16 with all the trappings of kinghood decorating him. Yes, he remembered this day, as he watched Yuuri steady his crown in preparation to open the feast with a word. The day Yuuri made the choice – the day he lived as human or mazoku. The day at his right hand, Conrad had sworn that he would stand next to him through all the days of his life. To protect, and yes… to love.

Yuuri's wide and shining eyes caught his, and he leaned in to hear the words he knew were coming.

"I wanted you to know first," Yuuri whispered. "I chose Mazoku."

It had been no great surprise.

But 10 years before, a dozen stars had not burst before his eyes, blinding him. He felt deaf as well. But he saw…

He saw Yuuri as he lay sleeping. Yuuri as he had known.

"_What did I do to deserve this?"_

Change one thing…

"He lives for you as you live for him."

_Nurture the soul and let it grown, plant it deep, and care… Love is. Despite everything, love is. And no mistake will change that._

In a moment, in a heartbeat, he experienced everything. The quick spurt of love, the rush of it, newly hatched, that made him want to laugh and touch and protect all at once. The mystery of touching that lithe body, as if it was a memory. And it was.

As if in a daze, Conrad lifted the goblet in toast. It clinked merrily against Yuuri's cup, and the light it produced blinded him. The goblet fell in a long arc, and he fell with it.

* * *

He could still feel the echo in his hand from when it had hit the table when such terrible vertigo hit him that he had to slap his other hand down on the table to keep from sagging onto the floor. Silence had fallen around him, and his eyes slit open until his plate ceased wavering. Yuuri's hand stole over his.

"Conrad, are you all right?"

Conrad breathed, staring at the hand, with its long fingers and slender back. It was not the hand of a child. Nor was the voice that said his name, low and urgent. A chill swept over him as he looked up, and up, until he met the dark eyes, the face, that he had left.

Yuuri, Yuuri, he wanted to shout. We fixed the goblet, we made it new… It brought me back. It finally brought me back.

But no words would come.

He cupped Yuuri's face with trembling hands, nearly knocking down the jauntily placed crown, rewriting the face again to his memory. He felt Yuuri gasp against his mouth as he kissed him, felt hands come up to cover his.

Darkness took him before he could speak.

* * *

He woke in his own room again, and his stomach took a bitter churn. Had some twist of fate taken him to a different time than from where he came? The red drape of a cape over the chair had his eyes darting over. Yuuri sat quietly on the foot of the bed, leaning against one of the bedposts and considering him with eyes that had haunted his memories.

He played it safe.

"Heika…"

"How do you feel?"

Conrad touched his forehead with two fingers. How did he feel? Little pieces of a puzzle that he had resigned himself to having lost were back, and others scattered beside. He felt… incomplete, and yet everything he had wanted sat so close to him.

"You collapsed at dinner, do you remember? We brought you to your room to rest." Yuuri folded his arms across his chest, effectively closing off the rest of him.

Another puzzle piece clicked into place. But a bigger place was empty. If Yuuri didn't remember… If he had been brought back, only to be stripped of everything he had gone back to save? His hands twitched as he recalled the sensation of touching hands, his own hands but different, through a pane of glass-like time.

"But this isn't my room…?" Conrad stiffened, and for a moment the times merged. "Did I miss your pledging?"

Yuuri blinked but the corners of his mouth twitched. "By ten years. You were there."

"Right," Conrad said. He had not missed that at least. He remembered their conversation from only a few days ago, Yuuri's words. Days? It had felt like lifetimes. "You turned 26 today, not 500."

Feature by feature, the distance in Yuuri's face began to fade. In Yuuri's eyes he saw naked fear and hope mingled, Yuuri's face that spoke every emotion that he felt. He had never perfected his poker face. All or nothing. Before he had been blank. Now…

He reached for Yuuri, was not ashamed as his fingers trembled. Both of Yuuri's hands caught his, and held it still as those dark eyes studied their hands for a long and painful moment. Then his eyes lifted, linked, with his.

Yuuri spread Conrad's hand against his chest, against his heart. A gesture they had shared since the very first moment that they had been a "them."

The unspoken "I love you."

"Yuuri."

The fear had been replaced with a smile, Yuuri's whole face shining.

"Welcome home."

He had not irrevocably changed the past. He had gone through time itself for this one moment.

They moved together, without word or thought, not holding tight or desperate, but steady and sure. Tomorrow they would speak of it, and come to understand. Tonight, this was enough. He pressed his cheek to Yuuri's and heard him laugh. Conrad smiled.

He was home.

* * *

**The End**

* * *

My thanks to each of you who took the time to comment. Every one is special to me, and due in no small part to that that this story is complete. Again, all my thanks. Also, undying thanks to Crystaltear... without her, there would be no this.

* * *


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